Epitaxial growth of semiconductor regions is a well known semiconductor device and integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technique. Despite the fact that epitaxial growth has been used for decades it is not free from difficulties and challenges, especially as device dimensions have become smaller and smaller and the materials used in the epitaxial layers or regions have become more complex, often times different than the substrate on which the epitaxial regions or layers are being formed, or both. Further, the ongoing need for continuing cost reductions in the manufacture of semiconductor devices and ICs prompts the introduction of epitaxial reactors adapted to process larger numbers of semiconductor wafers in a single fabrication batch. Use of such higher volume processing tools can give rise to epitaxial deposition problems not encountered with earlier low volume processing tools. Accordingly, there is an ongoing need for improved epitaxial fabrication methods and structures, especially in connection with manufacture of field effect transistors (FETs), including metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistors (MOSFETs), particularly when being transitioned from low volume to high volume epitaxial deposition tools.